Kiss My Knits!

These are the things in my day today which are of the good.

Tonight, we brought out Victory at Sea, which is a generic Battleship game. In hindsight, I should have sprung for Battleship, because this was the travel version of the game, and it was poorly designed. The grid numbers were the same color as the background and difficult to read, the pegs were in a container that should have snapped open but didn’t, and the ships were difficult to get out of their case. However, a Sharpie fixed the grid issue, and the rest we can work around. But that’s not why I’m posting!

We showed her how to play it. “A hit!” we’d say, and put in a red peg, or “a miss!” and put in a white, explaining how we came to this conclusion. Steve helped her. They teamed up against me. We played until one ship was sunk, because she likes to take these things in small doses.

Then she wanted to play with the board on her own. After a few minutes, she came in to ask me what it was called when you put in a red peg. “A hit,” I replied, and she padded back. Curious, I went to see what she was up to. She was playing that the red pegs were boys and the white were girls.

What I found funny? The white pegs were girls for a reason. They were “misses.” Hee! Clever little monkey.

I got a call from my favorite hair stylist a couple of days ago saying that she was moving to California and asking if I wanted to get my hair cut. Yes! It had been since April that I got it cut. I had tried to get hold of her just before Simucon, but no luck. So I went to see her today. My hair was significantly longer than my usual “razored at the neck” cut, so she kept the length. My new cut looks… pretty much like my old cut. Hm. Well, it’s still better.

Went and saw my daughter’s dance recital today. It was all pretty princesses and tea parties. Not quite as horrifyingly stereotypical as last year, so that’s something. Bella Abzug probably isn’t so much spinning in her grave as gently rolling.

We stopped at Starbucks afterward, and on the way out of the parking lot, I got pulled for expired tags. Like, expired in May. Oops. I had pulled into a spot, so Emily started to get out of the car and walk back to the police car, so I got her back in. The officer was smiling at her. It was a minor ticket that I can go and get fixed without an insurance ding when my new tags come in. I don’t know if he overlooked the outdated inspection because of the pretty princess ballerina in the back or not, but it never hurts to have Emily in the car for this stuff. No one can resist her charms!

Tonight, more knitting on Emily’s sweater while watching disc 3 of “The Best of Larry Sanders” (from Netflix). The hubby will be going out for coffee with his friend, who is moving out of town next week. There’s a Browncoat gathering to go and watch a new Alan Tudyk movie, but I’d rather my man get in his last hurrahs with his friend.

Me: Look, Emily! What do you think?
Her: It’s nice. It’s soooo pretty.
Me: Thanks! You know, anytime you want me to knit you some socks, you can just tell me. We can pick out the yarn together.
Her: Aren’t you knitting me a shirt?
Me: … yes. Yes, I am.

Busted! Okay, back to the sweater. I’ve already had to lengthen the torso once to accomodate Tall Girl, I’d better finish it up if it’s going to get any wear this Autumn before she outgrows it. The original design is pictured left. The front is pictured right. Eh, close enough. I’ve just bound off a few stitches for the armholes, now it’s upward for another 40 rows. Besides, I have to finish this one off so I can make my dad’s Charlie Brown sweater. I’ll leave any “widen the torso” jokes until I can razz him on the phone. Love you, Dad!

It looks like several of my daughter’s toys are part of the Mattel toy recall. They’re not being recalled because they have lead paint, but because they have little magnets that younger kids could swallow. The chances of my daughter doing this are slim, but still. I knew I disliked Polly Pocket for a reason. DAMN YOU, MATTEL!

(Mom, the one you have seems to be unaffected. So that’s something.)

I just ran into a Dragonrealms Trailblazer on Ravelry. I remember her – she and her husband were quite well-known. It’s like I happened to run into a high school pal in a coffeeshop in Minsk or something. What are the odds? She and her husband are playing Gemstone now, which I’m glad to hear. It makes me smile to think of them and the old days.

I’m ramping up the amount of schoolwork I do with Emily to get her ready to return in a few weeks. She was rusty on some things, like subtracting with regrouping, but the mechanics of it came back. More troubling is that she still has to count sometimes to add simple numbers.
Her: “seven plus eight… that’s easy… seven plus eight is… three.” (this is just said to stall).
Me: “Is that your answer?”
Her: “No. Seven plus eight is… ten. Seven plus eight is four.”
At this point, I either wait until she stops randomly naming numbers and settles upon the correct one with a tone of confidence and finality, or I prompt her with something she can use to figure it out, but never thinks of on her own, like:
Me: “Seven plus eight. Isn’t that a double plus one?” (She knows all her doubles, like 7+7=14.)
Her: “15!” This is said quickly with a tone like, “I had it, Mom!”

When she subtracts, she’s almost always counting. She should have this stuff memorized. This is not a good foundation going into a year which will see the introduction of multiplication. I’m open to suggestion on other ways to work this, since I’m not experienced with pedagogy. For instance, no matter how many times I try to explain the whole trick about adding 9 to a number making it equal 1+one less than the number, like 9+5=14, it never ever sticks. This is exactly why I shouldn’t homeschool.

Anyway, we’ve been working on this intermittently all summer, but we’re laying into it harder now. Less playing Sims2 (which she’s understanding a little too much of now anyway) and more schoolwork! Diddy mao!

Emily wanted me to put her hair up in a big bun today. However, I’m not good with elaborate upswept designs like that, and we only have two bobby pins. So I told her I didn’t think I could do it, and she got upset. We finally settled on two small buns, down lower, and I told her they were probably going to come undone. And that if they DID come undone, it was okay. And it was okay if she lost the bobby pins. And I could fix it later. And she needed to stay calm and not get upset. She said she wouldn’t get upset. Of course, she always says that. When I dropped her at Nature Museum camp, I told her counselor if her hair fell out or she lost the pins, it was fine. (Note, I never used the phrase “if your hair falls out” to my very literal daughter. I can just imagine the concern that would produce.)

As I predicted, her hair fell, and she got upset. I don’t know how upset. Not upset enough for them to call me, at least, so that’s something. When I came to pick her up, she’d been crying. I also can’t make out whether she is or is not enjoying the camp. It’s very frustrating.

I’m really worried about her ability to cope with third grade next year. Scratch that, next month. I’m at a loss as to how to get her to stay calm and take these things in stride. If one little thing goes wrong, her world falls apart. She’s better than she used to be with the obsessiveness, but it can still overtake her very quickly, and then it’s tough for her to hold it together. Every adult’s first instinct is to try to comfort her and help her get it together, but that really just seems to make it worse.

I feel like I’m not doing enough, but I also don’t know what else I can do. I hate writing stuff like this, because my parents read this journal and I know it makes them sad, but I still have to say it. Sorry, Mom and Dad. I wouldn’t trade her for anything, but it’s still hard. Such, I suppose, is life.

I’m still quite worn out from the trip. Maybe if I’m able to get more sleep, things will seem better.

It’s the perfect storm of Emily’s interests! Groovy Girl dolls AND Brownies! Damn you, Manhattan Toy! Because I’ve been mailing out badges and such this week, Emily’s taken a renewed interest in Scouts. I still have Scout paperwork to do to prepare for Fall, but at least I don’t have a bunch of little girls all waiting for their cookie badges, which were earned in April. We need to get the troop together this summer at least once for the girls bridging up to Juniors. Emily wants to have them all over to the house. I was thinking a more neutral location, but that’s just me.

Nothing terribly exciting to show, knitting-wise. It’s been all Jayne, all the time. Instead, let’s see another video, shall we?

In 1991 or 1992 (I want to say 1992) I did a contest with WSOC-TV wherein we would show a location from somewhere in our viewing area, and people would have to call in and name the location, and if they were the tenth caller they’d win. The “calling in” portion of the contest was not without its challenges – it was definitely a learning experience for our promotion manager. However, shooting the spots was great fun, since we got to go all over two states shooting landmarks like the Reed Gold Mine. This was one of two winnerspots we did for that contest. We would bring in a group of five winners at a time for economy’s sake. We didn’t do that for winnerspots at WJZY, and what I learned is that doing a good winnerspot is like doing a good DVD commentary – get a decent number of people in the studio at once. They loosen each other up and have more fun, and it shows.

15 years later, I’m not sure I remember this guy’s name. Either Lineburger or Tarlton. Regardless, he was a character, God love him. He came up with that schtick himself. I met the nicest people in that job.

Jayne hats up for: CA, OK, CA.

Ha! Get it? Spinning yarns? Because this post will be about storytelling AND spinning?

…fine, never mind.

We had a great time at the storytelling festival. The acts were great, including Emily’s grandparents and her fifth-grade cousin, who was storytelling for a crowd for the first time. He’s acted before, but this was his first monologue-type performance. This boy’s got crazy talent. Remember me when you’re rich and famous, kid!

They had a really nice kids’ area put together as well, for when the young’uns got restless from listening to stories. At left, Emily attempts stilts with a little help from her Dad. At right… I don’t know who’s at right. I thought I was taking a picture of my daughter, but I guess this super-hero stepped into the frame. Oh well.


Emily was super-excited to see her cousins, with hugs all around. They had a good time playing all weekend. If you look at them, you will see yet more proof that my daughter gets most of her genes from her Italian father. All she got from my side was some freckles and a propensity for hiccups. Thanks to her Italian genes, even though she spent a fair amount of time in the sun and I spent all my time in the shade, I was the only one to get sunburned. My nose is peeling, but Emily looks great. Go figure.



All this activity did leave my daughter pretty worn out. She had a good time, but it was also overwhelming, in the way that new activities often are to her. Here she is resting with her dad. Aw.

I spun up more of the red stuff I got from Yarns Etc. I think I want to try to make socks from this, so I’m not sure whether I should ply it (twist it with another strand to make it stronger). I’m open to suggestion from spinners, because I’m still quite inexperienced at this.

I haven’t been keeping good track of how much of the original batch I’ve already spun. I thought I’d bought six ounces, so I didn’t want to spin more than three until I could figure out whether to ply it or not. I don’t have a postal scale (I really should, for the business) so I didn’t have an accurate way to measure what was left unspun.

What I wound up doing was attaching the skeinwinder to the top of my wheel and being sure it was balanced. Then I hung the bag of unspun fiber from the left arm and a bag containing something I thought was approximately equal in weight from the right. In this way, I determined that I have between a small juice box and a vienna sausage can’s worth of unspun fiber left. In other words, about 4.5 ounces. That doesn’t seem right – did I buy eight ounces originally? So now I’m stuck as to what to do.

All my charity Jayne knitting is done. I may actually put out a call and see if anybody else wants one – I’m feeling very inspired by Joss Whedon’s recent Equality Now post on Whedonesque. The man’s a good writer, you gotta give him that.

Emily’s been super-engaged lately, which is fantastic but also means I really have to bring my A-game. So I’m off for now!

Hats up for: NJ, CA, CO.

Every five or so Jayne hats I have to knit something non-Jayne or else I go insane. I’m sorry, but I defy anyone to make the same hat, no matter how cool, 400 times in a row without getting a little “All work and no beer makes Homer something something.” And so, I turned the heel on my Tofutsies sock. Unfortunately, it looks like I knit it a little too long. It’s doing this weird squared-off thing at the back of my heel that it really shouldn’t be doing. Fortunately, I put in a lifeline just before I started the heel, so it’ll be no trouble to rip it back, un-knit a couple of rows, and do it again. Then I need to bring it in by about eight stitches. That’s because while my feet are 10 inches around, my ankles are more like eight and a half. Thanks for the wide feet, Mom!

I actually am doing Jayne hats and kits while working on the sock, but all work is going more slowly than usual this week due to Spring break. My daughter’s home, and surprisingly, my eight-year-old doesn’t want me to spend all my time knitting. Go figure. Today we went to Discovery Place, a local science museum, and looked at the fish and watched a puppet show. Emily loves puppet shows. And live theater. When the show was over, she immediately said, “let’s hear it again!” Sorry, sweetie, it was the last show of the day. I promised her we’d go again another time.

It was insanely crowded. I had accounted for it being Spring break, but I hadn’t also thought that since it was Good Friday, a lot of parents would be off work, and want something to do with their child. Add to that that the “Candy Unwrapped” exhibit is visiting Discovery Place, and that the weather was a little cool, and all the factors combined into the perfect storm. This is why we usually go to the Charlotte Nature Museum instead. Much less crowded, and they do have puppet shows. Well, we still had fun. Any day that you get to pet an iguana is a good day.

Tomorrow I go with on a road trip to Odd Broads, which is getting out of the yarn business and so has everything on sale for 40% off. I doubt I’ll pick anything up, what with the 50% off sale this coming Tuesday, but you never know. 40% off reasonably priced yarn may be a better deal than 50% off of Stitch’s generally overpriced stock.

I’m up too late again. Signing off and going to bed. G’night!